1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a bookbinding system and a bookbinding apparatus that loads, as bookblock stack (i.e., an inner book part), a plurality of recording sheets discharged from an image forming apparatus, bonds a cover with the bookblock stack, and cuts the bookblock stack bonded together with the cover into a designated size.
2. Description of the Related Art
A conventional bookbinding apparatus performs gluing processing for applying glue to a stack of recording sheets (hereinafter, referred to as “bookblock stack”) discharged from an image forming apparatus, bonding processing for bonding a cover with the bookblock stack, and cutting processing for cutting the bookblock stack together with the bonded cover.
As discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2005-104063 and Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-209870, a bookbinding system includes an image forming apparatus connected to the bookbinding apparatus.
However, as illustrated in FIG. 48, in a state where a cover is bonded around a bookblock stack, the cover length in a front edge direction varies according to a stack thickness of the bookblock stack. The above-described conventional bookbinding system does not take this variation into consideration.
For example, if a bookblock has a small stack thickness (e.g., if the number of sheets is small), a cutting amount of a cover is large. As illustrated in FIG. 49, if a cut waste 1000 is excessively long, the cut waste 1000 interferes with a waste receiver unit 533. Thus, the waste processing is infeasible.
Furthermore, if the cover length in the front edge direction is long, a bookbinding product (which is not subjected to cutting processing) interferes with a ceiling member 1001 and cannot be discharged as illustrated in FIG. 50.